Texas UIL baseball bi-district playoffs set to begin later this week originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Texas UIL baseball playoffs will get started later this week with a total of five teams from the Lone Star State ranked nationally by MaxPreps, and the bi-district matchups are set with only a handful of exceptions.

The Tomball Cougars are at the top of those rankings – in the driver's seat to not only win a Texas state championship but, possibly, a national title to boot. They'll get their postseason journey started with an opening-round matchup against the Langham Creek [Houston] Lobos.

All five of the nationally-ranked playoff contenders from Texas will compete for state titles in separate divisions, meaning there are no opportunities for those teams to cross paths in the playoffs.

Other top-ranked teams in the MaxPreps list include the No. 5 Calallen [Corpus Christi] Wildcats (UIL Class 4A Division I), No. 17 Keller Indians (UIL Class 6A Division I), No. 18 Grapevine Mustangs (UIL Class 5A Division II), and No. 22 Pleasant Grove [Texarkana] Hawks.

All five of the UIL teams ranked in the latest MaxPreps national rankings are currently ranked inside the Top 25 headed into the playoffs.

The University Interscholastic League divides each of its classifications starting with Class 2A and up into two playoff divisions based on enrollment, and we finally know the brackets and all but one of the bi-district matchups for this weekend's playoff openers.

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